Last Friday (May 16) police in France, Germany and the Netherlands arrested 10 men suspected of providing funds to the Islamic Movment of Uzbekistan (IMU) (AP). Eight of the suspects were arrested in France and one each in Germany and the Netherlands. Interestingly, at least nine of the arrestees are believed to be of Turkish origin, and not Uzbek (VOA). Moreover, the arrests were of a preventative nature as none of the funds were believed to be directed towards terrorist acts (Der Spiegel).

The IMU is classified as a terrorist organisation by the UN, USA and UK (but not the EU, it seems - or is there a more recent list of proscribed organisations?), yet most analysts and academics believe its activities to have been utterly denuded since the death of Juma Namangani in Afghanistan in late 2001 (check out this vintage story by Ahmed Rashid from a January 2002 issue of the New Yorker).

However, Tohir Yuldashev - the other IMU big cheese - is still knocking around, possibly (probably?) in Pakistan (ICG). Moreover, none of the arrests have been linked to those of Islamic Jihad Union (IJU-or Islamic Jihad Group, depending on your POV) suspects in Germany last summer (UPI). The same UPI story notes, ‘the IJU may hope to recruit new extremists from the pool of frustrated young men alienated from Germany’s mainstream society.’ Perhaps this explains the recent displays of chumminess between Berlin and Tashkent?